Once again, the U.S. FDA giveth and it taketh away. Just a few days after expanding its approval for Gilead Sciences Inc.’s Veklury (remdesivir) to provide access to more people infected with COVID-19, the FDA essentially shut down the use of two monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatments Jan. 24 that had been authorized to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infections – Regeneron Inc.’s Regen-Cov (Ronapreve in Europe), an antibody cocktail of casirivimab and imdevimab, and Eli Lilly and Co.’s bamlanivimab and etesevimab that are administered together.
LONDON – A pledge to “bottle” improvements made in setting up and running clinical trials during the pandemic has materialized in the formation of Protas Ltd., a nonprofit promising to stage large-scale phase III clinical trials in common diseases for less than one tenth the current cost. Protas will design and run randomized phase III studies of new and repurposed drugs in conditions including depression, dementia, heart, lung and respiratory conditions, arthritis and cancer.
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Anixa, Arrowhead, Dnovo, GSK, Molgenie, Neoimmunetech, Opthea, Respirerx.
Administering multiple booster doses against COVID-19 is not sustainable in the longer term, international drug regulators said during a meeting of the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities, held Jan. 12. Regulators argued that a long-term strategy should involve vaccines capable of tackling several variants at once, not just omicron, and that tweaking existing vaccines and comparing them with first-generation vaccines using clinical studies is the way forward, according to a report from the meeting.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: AB Science, Amgen, AN2, Aptorum, Argenx, Beigene, Betterlife, Clairvoyant, Compass, Idorsia, Jeil, Marker, Novavax, Nuvation, Omeros, Opko, Palleon, Pfizer, Rockwell, Senhwa, Turning Point.
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Alzinova, MD Anderson, Orchard, Revivicor, Sorrento, Tevogen, Trisalus, United Therapeutics, Yingli.
Targetingone Corp. Ltd.’s new testing kit based on digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) techniques has received approval from China’s NMPA. It is the first dCPR-based testing kit to receive the country’s class III medical device registration certificate. The Beijing-based company collaborated with Tsinghua University, several hospitals and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) participated to research and develop the testing kit.
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